August 3, 2006

Ethics, religion, and new media to converge in Newsplex conference

Theme sessions on convergent journalism, ethics and new media highlight the agenda for the University of South Carolina's annual convergence conference, which will take place October 19-21, 2006 in Columbia, S.C.

A sampling of paper titles demonstrates the range of issues explored in the conference: "Is Religion the New Sex?," "Comparing Ethical Models of Mass Media Content to Blogs and Mobile Media Ethics," "Creating Cyberfaith: The Interpretation of American Buddhism Via New Media," "Lost in MySpace: The negative news about social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster and Facebook in Mainstream Media," "What Editors Want From New Journalists: Converging Skills or Old School Standards?," and "A Feminist Approach to Convergence."

The theme of the conference, "Convergence and Society: Ethics, Religion and New Media" was reflected in the wide range of submissions accepted for the conference. As in previous years, the conference features multiple sessions addressing trends in media convergence and convergent journalism, including sessions on technologies, community journalism and contemporary issues.

The conference kicks off Thursday afternoon, Oct. 19, with a theme session that includes presentations exploring issues surrounding ethics, new media and education. Friday’s sessions explore religion and convergence, including one full session of papers addressing the relationship between blogs and religion. The conference closes at noon Saturday, October 21 with a session combining papers related to teaching convergence and new technologies. The preliminary conference agenda has been posted on the conference Web site: http://newsplex.sc.edu/newsplex_con06.html.

A pre-conference Newsplex training seminar will provide an introduction to simple software for creating Flash presentations for Web sites. Registration is available at no cost to conference attendees, but registration is limited to the first 15 individuals requesting the workshop. (E-mail Augie Grant: augie@sc.edu for more information on the workshop.)

The conference keynote speaker will be announced in late August. The conference is open to any academic or industry professional. Registration for the full conference is $125 and full information on registration and the conference hotel can be found on the conference Web site: http://newsplex.sc.edu/newsplex_con06.html. For more information about the conference, contact Augie Grant via e-mail: augie@sc.edu or call 803.777.4464.

Dr. Augie Grant, conference chair